Yellen, who hosted a breakfast for leaders from the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity before a White House summit, said Treasury strongly supported efforts by IDB President Ilan Goldfajn to reform the regional development bank's private sector arm, IDB Invest, and backed a capital increase for it. "My team at Treasury is working closely with President (Ilan) Goldfajn and IDB Group shareholders to define the policy reforms and financial scenarios that would enable a significant capital increase for IDB Invest," she said. Yellen told an IDB conference on Thursday that additional capital would help increase IDB Invest's impact and ability to better mobilize private capital to the region, as APEP partners work to shift supply chains away from China and expand "nearshoring" options closer to home. Yellen also said on Thursday that the "originate-to-share" approach adopted by IDB Invest CEO James Scriven was pioneering a new way for multilateral development banks (MDBs) to leverage private sector capital, an innovation being closely watched by others. The move by IDB follows efforts by China to increase its influence in Latin America, through increased direct lending to Latin American governments and boosting trade ties to resource-rich South American countries.

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Persons: Janet Yellen, Ilan Goldfajn, Ilan, Goldfajn, Yellen, James Scriven, Andrea Shalal, Christina Fincher, Paul Simao Organizations: . Treasury, Inter, American Development Bank, Americas, Economic Prosperity, Treasury, IDB Invest, IDB Group, IDB, Thomson Locations: United States, America, Caribbean, Washington, U.S, Latin America, China, Mexico